Saturday, October 23, 2010

This week a question came up about the alcohol in Bach Flower Essences.

If you read the site, you’ll see that the flower essences on the Feel Bach! site are preserved in spring water and Brandy. While other flower essence distributors use grape alcohol, we use the same formula that Dr. Bach perfected all those years ago.

The amount of brandy compared to the spring water is miniscule – 1 to 360 – or less than three tenths of one percent.

But still, although there is not enough alcohol to do harm to infants, the ill, or the elderly, you can taste the brandy in this formula.

So if you’re sensitive to alcohol, or if you’re buying for someone who is, go to http://feelbach.com/qto.asp to build a personal formula. Then, in the last step, write “alcohol-free” in the comment area.

If you own the set of Bach Flower essences and are making a formula for someone, use only 2 drops of each essence in the 20 or 30 ml bottle, and fill with spring water – omitting the brandy entirely.

Without the preservative, you'll need new formula more often, but if alcohol sensitivity is a real problem, it will be worth it.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Years ago I had a family member who was an eternal pessimist. Nothing was good. Nothing was fun. She was so depressing to talk with that I would probably have avoided her altogether were it not for a sense of duty. Everyone else was already avoiding her, and that left me.

The doctors called it depression and gave her pills. When she took them she was some better, but definitely not cheerful. And then she’d get tired of taking them and stop. Once when I was taking her to an appointment she opened the car window and threw them all out along the highway.

They even sent her to a psychotherapist – which only added fuel to her fire. If anything, she was even more convinced that life was terrible after visits with him.

But I kept trying. One night I took her to play Bingo at the VFW hall, and she won! She went up to collect her money and came back smiling. But then I made a mistake – I said “Wasn’t that fun?”

She immediately shut down and went back to being pessimistic. It appeared to be a conscious choice – it seemed that her only pleasure came from being chronically unhappy and trying to make sure that everyone else was too.

Had I known about Bach Flower Essences back then I probably would have insisted that she start taking Gentian.

Gentian is the Bach Flower Remedy that brings a return to faith – in God and the Higher Self, and in the meaning of life. It’s the state that a skeptical personality falls into when they lose touch with their higher selves, and Bach Flowers help lift them out of that state.

Some people seem to have been born this way, but usually this negative Gentian state comes as the result of circumstances. It might be illness, or unemployment, or the loss of a loved one. Children who are unhappy in school often fall into this state, as do elderly people who are forced to move to a care facility.

The Bach Flower Essence Gentian won’t change a skeptic into an optimist, but it will allow him or her to see that a positive outcome is possible – and it will allow them to once again enjoy the company of friends and family.

Glen shares them with other revolutionaries – people so dedicated to their cause that they do things like tying themselves to trees or laying down in front of bulldozers to save the forests.

They care not that some turn against them, labeling them as fanatics and kooks.

And this is well and good as long as they remain in a positive Vervain state. But in the negative state, this action is self-destructive.

They can push themselves so hard that they go without sleep and without proper nutrition - so that their bodies suffer from their dedication to the cause.

In the negative state the Vervain personality cannot begin to consider a different point of view, but once restored to the positive state, he can. And, in the positive state he is much more effective at inspiring others and gaining support for his mission.

Although there are those who disagree with Glen Beck and his methods of communication, judging from the size of his following, I’d have to believe that he is operating in the positive Vervain state.

If you're dedicated to a cause and feel yourself ignoring your own health in pursuit of righting a wrong or correcting an injustice, you too may be a Vervain personality, and you may be in the negative state. If so, visit FeelBach! and let Bach Flower Essences put you back in balance.